The King's Own Girl
by Llama Lady Lily
Summary: She was the King's Own Girl. And Nobody messed with the King's Own Girl. A series of short drabbles about the King's Own and their Girl.
1. The King's Own Girl

The King's Own Girl

They'd been with the startling girl with hazel eyes for four years. They'd watched her grown into a spectacular young woman, with the gaze of a Commander, and the nerve of the men combined.

They'd watched her train, work, fly and bleed for four years. They'd watched _Kennan_ court her, and growled his fief when she attacked the couriers for his letters, and sighed in longing during their extended absence.

They'd watched her blossom from a young, nervous Yamani page, to a confidant, proud Tortallan warrior, and Lady Knight of Tortall.

She was the King's Own Girl.

And Nobody messed with the King's Own Girl.


	2. Challenge

Perhaps she was unable to challenge the unworthy squire, perhaps she was unable to grind him to a pulp, but _they_ weren't. Stone Mountain was going to pay some blood – even if it wasn't essentially to Kel, she was their girl. It was almost as good.

Several of the men went hunting that night – Wolset, Fulcher, Derom, Emmit, Aiden, and half a dozen others wandered the halls searching for a particular bully. Dom was mysteriously absent when Emmit had gone to enlist him – irritating, because Dom was easily the best of them at sneaking. It must have been all of that sneaking around the castle he'd done as a boy.

They looked for a good hour before they found him – he was leaning against a tree, nursing a bleeding broken nose.

"Stone Mountain!" Aiden called across the Courtyard.

"Not more bloody King's Own!" Joren protested.

"More bloody King's Own," Fulcher said with a sneer. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"I'm getting mighty sick of you lot," Joren spat.

"Not half as sorry as you're about to be," Derom said, launching to the air.

It was an easy scuffle – Fulcher broke Joren's nose again, while the others focused on rearranging his organs and providing free dentistry. Only the whistled call to attention by the previously mysteriously missing Sergeant ceased Derom's tirade of violence.

"I think that's enough, boys," Dom said quietly, his eyes narrowed. "I think we've done our girl some justice."

Nobody messed with the King's Own Girl.


	3. Courting

When The King's Own heard about the Sergeant courting their Girl, they were none too pleased.

Lerant and Wolset and caught them first. Kel and Dom had been caught off-guard in an intimate embrace in a quiet corridor when the two inebriated men had tossed themselves down it. They sobered immediately when they saw the entwined Knight and Sergeant.

"Masbolle!" Lerant called.

"What are you doing with the Lady Knight?" Wolset demanded.

This caught the attention of several other diners, who were at the back of the banquet hall. Unfortunately for Dom, many of the Kings Own had been seated there, including the infamous Knight Commander, many of whom came running at the mention of their Girl.

"Sergeant! What are you doing? You can't have her! She's ours!" Qasim said, outraged.

Dom and Kel looked like a pair of dear caught in candle lights.

"Uhh, you see…" Dom stuttered as several more angry men emerged through the doors to find the Sergeant and Distaff still entwined

"Erm, well…" Kel muttered.

"Domitan of Masbolle," The Knight Commander said. "Report to my office."

Nobody, not even one of the King's Own, messed with the King's Own Girl.


	4. Bachelor Party

Faleron was ecstatic. Tomorrow was his wedding day. He'd managed to con the boys _out_ of an elaborate bachelor party, and they simply went to the tavern for a couple of drinks. Faleron wasn't a drinker, however, and drank water while his friends slowly became more and more inebriated. Neal's jokes got worse and worse, Seaver's speech became more and more slurred, and Merric's eyes became less focused the more they all drank, and Faleron was able to laugh at his friends' misfortune when their appropriate wives and girlfriends found them. He'd sent them all home, and it was just past eleven when Faleron was walking back to his home for his last evening of bachelordom when they got him.

He was bundled over and had a bag shoved over his head, and there was a scurrying of movement. Faleron yelled. Someone whispered into his ear a threat.

"Scream again, and it gets painful, King's Reach."

He believed the voice.

They didn't take him far. Soon, he was bound, and sitting on a chair, having the bag ripped from his head.

He laughed.

"Dom! Lerant!" he said while a smile. There were other men in the room, lit by two lonely candles, and he knew each of their names – they'd been invited to the wedding, and, of course, Kel had insisted that he got to know her company. As head of Third Company, Kel had the files of every man in every squad in her home, and Faleron had read every file, and gotten to know each of them.

But it was Dom and Lerant that stood in front of him, arms folded, not laughing.

Faleron's giddiness eased awkwardly. He was the only one laughing. In fact, he was the only one making any sound at all.

"Think this is funny, King's Reach?" Derom asked.

"Fellows, I have no idea what's going on," Faleron said.

"You're a pretty boy, King's Reach," Dom said. "You've captured Our Girl's heart. Tomorrow you're going to marry her, and you didn't ask permission."

"Pardon? Yes I did. I asked her brother's permission to ask her to marry me, considering her parents' death. I asked her best friend to come ring shopping with me."

"You didn't ask _us_," Lerant said. "She's _our_ girl."

"Boys…" Faleron stammered.

"Don't speak," Dom ordered.

"This is the only warning you will get, King's Reach," a familiar voice said from a dark corner where Faleron assumed the door was. "If you hurt her at all, if you cause her any manner of pain, if you do anything to make her cry – anything at all that renders her less than the perfect condition we relinquish her in tomorrow, all of us," a quick gesture at the ten men in the room. "and our companies, will cause you extensive pain." Raoul put his hand on Faleron's shoulder. "Are we clear, son?"

"Deadly," Faleron said.

The King's Own were torn as to what to do with the man who might, in the future, mess with the King's Own Girl.


	5. The Big Day

Her mother and father had been killed some years ago – in fact, that had been the factor that had seen them fall in love. He had been there for her while she grieved, and they'd become very close. A whirlwind of a courtship, a quick engagement, and she was being walked down the aisle by Raoul and Neal on either arm.

When she reached the alter, Raoul removed her veil, kissed her forehead and retired to the first row, with the King's Own, who occupied the first two rows of her side of the church.

Neal took her bouquet, and she took Faleron's hands.

They both had smiles etched to their faces.

Some time into the ceremony, the priest asked. "Who gives this woman?" Kel had asked Neal to give her away.

However, Neal stepped forward to put his arm around her, and the entire two front rows on her side of the church stood and chorused with him.

"We do," The King's Own said.

"On behalf of Keladry's father, and her brothers, and her Company, I give Keladry of Mindelan to this man," Neal said.

With a scuffle, the King's Own sat down. Kel turned to her company and smiled. She mouthed a thank you, and kissed Neal's cheek.

Maybe the King's Own could mess with the King's Own Girl's wedding.


	6. Pregnant

Kel knew the ramifications of revealing her pregnancy. She didn't even tell Faleron until a week before she revealed it to her King. The men in her life would just worry.

As it turned out, she did well. She didn't start to show until she was about five months pregnant. She told people at five and a half, and was not allowed to hold a sword from that point onward.

When she was eight months pregnant, it was winter, so she was on house arrest. She finally got cabin fever and snuck out into the snow to draw a long bow. She got twelve or thirteen glorious shots at the target – she hadn't lost her touch, thank Mithros – before a cavalcade of King's Own beseeched her. They picked her up, carrying her on her back, restraining her arms and legs so she couldn't hit or kick anyone, and ignored her very audible protests.

The King laughed as fifteen or so members of Third Company carried their heavily pregnant Knight Commander back to her chambers, kicking and screaming in protest.

No one, not even the King's Own Girl could mess with the King's Own Girl.


End file.
